Language of Life
by 21stCenturyFairyTale
Summary: D.B Russell on whole was a good dad, unless you ask Benji. Benji Russell could argue that he wasn't because of a series of unfortunate events in his early life that shaped his future. Though as a grow up can he change the effect that his past has or leave it behind him and rebuild the family he walked away from.
1. Prologue

_"Some nights I stay up cashing in my bad luck, some nights I call it a draw" _

It's impossible to realise what it is like to live in the shadow of a brilliant man or the shadow of your younger brother. Constantly being overlooked and undervalued by the people around you. Daniel Benjamin "Benji" Russell had lived his whole teenage life this way, in the shadows of his sporty, talented younger brother. All his life he felt second best to Charlie and like compared to Charlie he was never truly good enough in his father's eyes. He felt that in his family he was just blended into the background of their everyday life. Being one of 4 he always felt like they had no time for him, it was always Charlie's basketball, or Maya's debate or Lucie's dance that they never noticed that Benji was even there. In the end it took Benji trying to take his own life for them to truly take note of what was going on with their eldest son, to take note to the fact that he wasn't okay. After 16 years they really noticed that he was more than just "gifted" like they were told years before. 16 years to realise that the son no one noticed had an IQ in the 170's and that he felt that he was an outcast within his own family because to him the social signals made no sense, that while everyone else took it for granted he struggled. 16 years to figure out their son was suffering from Asperger syndrome.  
It was too little to late though. From that day Benji decided that his relationship with his parents would end the day he graduated from high school. He graduated a year early and moved to New York to study at Columbia, never looking back at the life he left. He no longer needed to lie in someone else's shadow, he could finally be the person he had always wanted and tried to be. He was finally his own person and not just Charlie's brother or D.B's son, he was finally just Benji. He was finally himself. 7 years later he was Dr Benji Russell, Doctor of Applied Linguistics, speaker of 12 languages and husband to New York State Prosecutor Peter Davis and father to Eli John Russell-Davis, age 3. He had the life he never thought he would have and he was beyond happy for the first time in his life.


	2. Say Hello

_"I'm still learning to love, just starting to crawl"_

Benji smiled as he saw his baby sister, Lucie, enter the little coffee shop he was sitting in. Lucie was now 17 years old and was studying, as a boarder, at a dance academy in New York. Benji loved this because it meant that he could see his sister more often, without having to get involved with his parents.  
"Hey Lucie," he said beaming at her.

"Hey Benji" Lucie said as she sat opposite him. "How are Peter and Eli?"

"They're great, I'm trying to teach Eli French at the moment." Benji said smiling. He wanted his son to love language as much as he did.  
"Only you would teach your 3 year old a second language. " Lucie said with a small laugh.

"How is school treating you?" Benji asked, deciding to ignore that comment.

"I love it there. I can finally focus on what is most important to me." Lucie said, she decided it was about time she tested the waters a bit with Benji. "Mom and Dad are great. Dad is loving work in Vegas and is loving having Finn back working with him." She noticed the change in Benji's posture but continued regardless. "Maya is struggling with Katie's kidnapping still but at least Katie is home and safe. Charlie is doing great, basketball is going really well apparently."

"Great." Benji said his jaw locking while his hand went to play with the braided autism awareness bracelet on his wrist. Maya had made it when he was first diagnosed.  
"You can't hate them forever Benji. I know that you ignore the phone calls, letters, cards, email and everything that they use to try and make contact with you. They are your parents, they gave you life-"

"and then they ignored what was staring them in the face. Do you know how much I suffered because they didn't notice something was wrong?" Benji said. "I had no social skills, few friends. I was isolated from everyone because no one could see that something wasn't right with me. It was their job to spot something wasn't right and they didn't."

"But look Benji, you are now a perfectly functioning 24 year old with a husband and son. You managed to work through the mass of your problems with you communication and I know you will always struggle but you have to stop letting mom and dad take the blame for this." Lucie said.

"Can we not talk about this Lucie?" Benji asked.

"Fine, how's work?" Lucie asked deciding to shelf the subject for now.

"Good, I like teaching at Columbia and my students seem to actually be interested in the subject this year not just on an extra hour of sleep like last year." Benji said smiling. Lucie just smiled back, happy to see her brother was finally happy.


End file.
